ZIM: Zimbabwe Season 1995-96 - Review

Zimbabwe Season 1995/96 - Review

John Ward

After the hectic 1994/95 season, which  included  six  home  Test
matches,  Zimbabwe  experienced  a  reduction  in the quantity of
their international cricket in 1995/96. The  only full   interna-
tionals played at home were a Test and two one-day internationals
against South Africa.  The  only previous  visit  of   Zimbabwe`s
southern  neighbours had been for an unofficial one-day encounter
immediately before the 1992 World Cup. However,  the  public  in-
terest  for  the  1995/96 matches was far greater than for either
the Sri Lankan or Pakistani series and for the first time a  tour
to the country made a profit.

Although Zimbabwe was outclassed in the Test,  as  expected,  the
team  maintained  its  record  of never having been humiliated in
Test cricket. Zimbabwe`s performances  in  the one-day   matches,
however, were disappointing.

For the first time since its elevation to first-class status, the
Lonrho  Logan  Cup was not dominated by the two Harare teams (the
`Mashonaland Under-24` team being relabelled `Young Mashonaland`.
The  first round was played in the absence of the Flower brothers
and Dave Houghton, all fulfilling contracts in England,  and  the
Districts  and the Matabeleland teams seized the early initiative
with victories over the Harare sides.

Later group matches brought two classics.  Matabeleland  narrowly
defeated  the  Districts  by  a mere four runs, with Heath Streak
turning in a superb all-round performance. In a postponed  match,
the Districts team pipped Mashonaland by two wickets, thanks to a
superb fighting ninth wicket partnership of 56 between the Strang
brothers, Paul and Bryan.

Matabeleland and the Districts met again in the final at the  end
of  the  season, in a match which produced a number of remarkable
feats. The most notable were performed by the Matabele   captain,
Wayne  James,  who firstly equalled the world first-class wicket-
keeping record for an innings with nine dismissals,  then   broke
the  match record with a  further four in the second innings. Not
content with this, he scored 99 in the first innings and was  un-
beaten on the same score when the Districts wicket-keeper conced-
ed four byes to bring Matabeleland their first Logan Cup win  for
over twenty years.

Earlier in the match, Jason Oates for Districts became  only  the
third  player  from this country to score a century on his first-
class debut. Also playing was 46-year-old Denis Streak, father of
Heath, who had not played first-class cricket since the 1985 tour
of England and was only persuaded to play now in the  absence  of
several  regulars.  Still a leading performer in club cricket, he
was never likely to be a mere passenger.

An unfortunate apathy by many players below  international  level
meant  that  once again the Logan Cup sides were short of quality
players and often had to rely on stand-ins that were well   below
first-class  standard.  After  three seasons of this sort of non-
sense, ZCU reluctantly decided that, in the interests  of   stan-
dards  in  this competition, it was necessary to alter the format
for the 1996/97 season by reducing the number of  teams  partici-
pating.   They  felt  that  the best  option was to play just two
teams, Matabeleland and Mashonaland (a combination of the  Harare
teams and Districts), in a best-of-three competition. This would,
on paper, lead to a most unbalanced competition, but there was no
satisfactory solution.

Two other international teams visited Zimbabwe during the season:
Tasmania  and Yorkshire. Tasmania, captained by David Boon, had a
satisfactory tour without quite showing the  fierce  competitive-
ness  expected  of Australian teams, while Yorkshire, under David
Byas, gave notice of a more successful English county season with
some   positive  and  determined cricket,  recording two handsome
first-class victories.

The Zimbabwe Board XI had another disappointingly undistinguished
season in the UCBSA Bowl Competition, although heavy rains ruined
two of their five matches. Again the lack of  ambition  of   many
Zimbabweans  just  below  Test level was quite clear, and it is a
mercy that in future these matches will no longer  be  considered
first-class.

Dave Houghton, at the age of 38, was the outstanding  batsman  of
the season, scoring three centuries in five matches and recording
another Test century in New Zealand. He frequently appeared to be
batting   better  than  at any time in his career.  Bryan Strang,
the left-arm seamer, was the leading wicket-taker.

Source :: ACS Publication `Zimbabwe First-class Matches 1995/96`

 Contributed by Peter.Griffiths (pete@cricinfo.com)